Village Life...and a chick called Sunshine.
Its taken a rainy afternoon and an angle grinder to get me out of the house and garden and sit down to write this blog. Although I love to write, I'm time poor and job rich currently which leaves me with little else outside of the daily grind.
Although I must say village life is getting better and better. We went to our first barn dance recently. It was fancy dress - a Baywatch/beach theme. They had even built a pool with some cleverly stacked bales and ground sheeting. They had a Samba band to kick the evening off and get the vibes going with lots of foot tapping and bum wiggling. This was followed by a smaller band doing brilliant covers and then a DJ. There was a hog roast, barrels of cider and lots of fun was had by all. Most party goers had made at least a little effort to dress up in theme. I was a mermaid with a full tail of shimmery nylon netting and long red Ariel wig; there were lots of life guards, two sharks, a jellyfish and many party boys in brightly coloured Hawaiian shirts. We did make it home in one piece at a sensible time in order to be up sharpish in the morning to collect the small girl from her sleepover and head to the North Coast for a day on the (real) beach to celebrate the Ologist's birthday.
Where to start? The angle grinder. I'm allergic to them. Particularly when they are inside the house. Especially when brought in to just 'quickly' do something. I know the devastating mess they create with super fine micro dust that gets into everything. So, instead of running round in a panic shouting like a fishwife, I thought I'd retreat to my blog. It worked. The angle grinder has now left the building, and I am none the wiser apart from seeing the results which is a great improvement.
The 'Ologist has decided to remove the fire surround from our front room. Its not original. Its a bit of a hodgepodge of styles with upside down skirting board, fake wooden shields, all a bit out of proportion and overstated - not our thing really so we decided it must go. Anyhow, very shortly a new wood burner is being fitted with an insulated flue liner and proper metal plate to seal off the chimney so hopefully this winter all our heat won't be sucked up the gaping hole to the sky. An open fire is lovely, but it has an enormous appetite for wood that we could hardly sustain. And you can't really load it up and leave it. The final coat of plaster is now being smoothed on and it all looks far better in our eyes. A satisfying job done. Tick. Now for job number six thousand, two hundred and twenty eight....
There has been so much going on at the farm, with builders back this month busy fixing up my side of the barn - the equine department. 'His' side houses the tractor, the processed wood and we've recently cleared out a whole heap of debris to make way for the hay which we're about to cut and bale any day now.
The barn joists were rotten through and on New Year's Eve morning it had collapsed. Luckily for us our besties were staying, one of whom is a carpenter, the other an engineer so between them they happily got stuck in and made a temporary strut until the builders could schedule a visit to fix up the rest of it. All the joists are now made good. The derelict lean-to on the north side of the barn has been demolished and removed to leave a more useful concrete hard standing. Most useful of all has been the new guttering that now spans the whole of the north facing side of the barn. The old guttering was non existent and with three large roof areas spilling into this area the ground was permanently wet and boggy. A 'farmers' sized gutter and downpipe has been fitted so the ground is no longer squelchy and the lucky ponies are warm and dry with new gauzing fitted over the huge draughty window hole.
My side of the barn is where the ponies live and our new little chicks, Rusty and Sunshine, who reside in a temporary stable dwelling until they are big enough to fight their own way in the world. This was brought home to us in no uncertain terms when we found a little moorhen baby we'd been watching. It had recently appeared in one of our ponds. To our horror, the puppy had the head and the cat had the body....not a great sight, but a reminder that nature is tough and who dares wins. So, to give them the greatest chance of survival in our jungle, we've been advised to keep them in until they're at point of lay which is approximately 23 weeks, give or take a bit of advice each way.
Mummy Bantam hatched two eggs out of the six fertilized eggs we collected, and unfortunately abandoned her nest just as the rest were beginning the hatching process. We did our best to try to encourage her to keep the other eggs warm - we could hear them cheeping...but were firm in our resolve not to interfere with nature. Now almost five weeks old Rusty and Sunshine are growing rapidly and no longer fit under Mummy Bantam. Sunshine was a perfect fluffy yellow chick and is now developing white feathers. We still have no idea whether they'll be cocks or hens. Mummy Bantam is fiercely protective and has drawn blood on me a couple of time when I've been replenishing food or water. Hopefully she'll do her best to protect them on the farm when we let them join the others free roaming.
The barn joists were rotten through and on New Year's Eve morning it had collapsed. Luckily for us our besties were staying, one of whom is a carpenter, the other an engineer so between them they happily got stuck in and made a temporary strut until the builders could schedule a visit to fix up the rest of it. All the joists are now made good. The lean to on the north side of the barn has been demolished and removed to leave a more useful concrete hard standing. Most useful of all has been the new guttering that now spans the whole of the north facing side of the barn. The old guttering was non existent and with three large roof areas spilling into this area the ground was permanently wet and boggy. A 'farmers' sized gutter and downpipe has been fitted so the ground is no longer squelchy and the lucky ponies are warm and dry with new gauzing fitted over the huge draughty window holes.
Having been with the 'Ologist for nearly two decades (bar a couple of years) something new has started to happen much to my amusement. In all those years I can recall about two incidences when he has mowed the lawn. Ever. The job has always fallen to me to do, and now more than ever the pressure's on. He seems to have avoided that man-gene that requires lush green short mowed grass - or so I thought. The 'Ologist has bought himself a topper for his tractor and is in a frenzy to get on the ground to mow his meadows. Our newly seeded field has successfully turned green with mainly grass and a few weeds in between - which we're told with regular topping and grazing will easily be kept under control. We can't graze the other fields until they are fenced, and we can't fence until the hedges and trees are cut back....and we can't do that while the wildlife is nesting and young animals are about....so the small girl and I sing that song to her Daddy....One Man went to mow...went to mow a meadow....as he sets off with the topper attached and a big grin. It has made a huge difference to our fields that we're not taking hay off and is a great investment at a time when we can't use animals to do that job.
We held our second Pop-up-Pub last week. It is a monthly event, run and organised by 5 ladies from the village - and was a rip roaring success on both occasions. Our village has no pub, shop, playground or other amenity whereby families or groups can gather to catch up and socialise. There is the church, but you have to be churchy to go there, and they don't open up on a Friday night - its a different type of socialising. So the idea was born by one of the individuals and the group formed, seemingly organically. It takes a lot of work to organise but its fun and has started to gain momentum. It is held in our village hall, don't groan, we do a superb job to turn it into a pub each month with subtle lighting and not an inch of cork notice board on display. We polished off two casks of ale from Exeter Brewery this month together with buckets of wine, Prosecco and cider...not to mention the 75 Thai meals we served. Next month is Fish & Chips, and we're already planning a quiz night and a New Year's Eve party. There's a Jazz Night tonight we've got tickets for and a summer of fun ahead....who knew when we moved here it could be this much fun? Its such a rural location in the middle of nowhere...with a great social calendar.
My garden has been taking up most of my time and certainly most of my energy (pictured are a variety of roses which are glorious, perfumed and plentiful). A new strimmer with multi changing heads has greatly improved things for me with my never ending battle against the march of the weeds. I have to keep reminding myself that this is the peak of the growing season with every single plant making the most of the rainwater and sunshine and turning it into growth. While I take great pleasure in watching the edibles enlarge in my growing room, I have to also accept that the thistles and nettles grow with the same voracity.
We had a wonderful 'Good Life' lunch yesterday. It was almost 100% home grown - a spinach quiche with salad greens and the first of the gherkins. Or it could have been a cornichon - I can't see or taste a difference to be honest - but was a growing first for me this year and will definitely be on my must grow every year list. Admittedly I didn't grow and grind the wheat for the pastry, but I did grow and pick everything else and we took great pleasure in eating it. We did thank the chickens for the eggs as well. This is why we chose to live here. To live a good life. And that's exactly what we're doing. To be truly self sufficient would be enormous hard work and not a lot of social time or fun. We get the best of both worlds - lovely countryside, some home grown fodder but safe with the knowledge that we're just a 'click' away from a superstore delivery van. How the farmer's wife who lived here 70 years ago coped without today's modern efficiencies is beyond thinking! I give thanks for my new chest freezer each time I visit its depths.
Another first for me this month, talking of freezers. We were in receipt of a large bag of meat...the 'Ologist having ordered half a lamb from farmer friends we've made locally - they farm organic lamb and have a dairy herd that are also organic. Even with the help of a very concise book I still got some parts wrong.
Needless to say it all tastes delicious and nice to know its very local.
The small girl is still enjoying the pony but she is quite little and our pony is big by comparison. We have found an even littler pony locally that could do with a little girl to love it as its current owners, two boys, have grown out of him and are into other things.
So come the summer holidays we'll be a 3 pony farm - as if I don't have enough pony poo to pick up!
Although I must say village life is getting better and better. We went to our first barn dance recently. It was fancy dress - a Baywatch/beach theme. They had even built a pool with some cleverly stacked bales and ground sheeting. They had a Samba band to kick the evening off and get the vibes going with lots of foot tapping and bum wiggling. This was followed by a smaller band doing brilliant covers and then a DJ. There was a hog roast, barrels of cider and lots of fun was had by all. Most party goers had made at least a little effort to dress up in theme. I was a mermaid with a full tail of shimmery nylon netting and long red Ariel wig; there were lots of life guards, two sharks, a jellyfish and many party boys in brightly coloured Hawaiian shirts. We did make it home in one piece at a sensible time in order to be up sharpish in the morning to collect the small girl from her sleepover and head to the North Coast for a day on the (real) beach to celebrate the Ologist's birthday. 
Where to start? The angle grinder. I'm allergic to them. Particularly when they are inside the house. Especially when brought in to just 'quickly' do something. I know the devastating mess they create with super fine micro dust that gets into everything. So, instead of running round in a panic shouting like a fishwife, I thought I'd retreat to my blog. It worked. The angle grinder has now left the building, and I am none the wiser apart from seeing the results which is a great improvement. 
The 'Ologist has decided to remove the fire surround from our front room. Its not original. Its a bit of a hodgepodge of styles with upside down skirting board, fake wooden shields, all a bit out of proportion and overstated - not our thing really so we decided it must go. Anyhow, very shortly a new wood burner is being fitted with an insulated flue liner and proper metal plate to seal off the chimney so hopefully this winter all our heat won't be sucked up the gaping hole to the sky. An open fire is lovely, but it has an enormous appetite for wood that we could hardly sustain. And you can't really load it up and leave it. The final coat of plaster is now being smoothed on and it all looks far better in our eyes. A satisfying job done. Tick. Now for job number six thousand, two hundred and twenty eight....There has been so much going on at the farm, with builders back this month busy fixing up my side of the barn - the equine department. 'His' side houses the tractor, the processed wood and we've recently cleared out a whole heap of debris to make way for the hay which we're about to cut and bale any day now.
 |
| Sunshine: two days old |
My side of the barn is where the ponies live and our new little chicks, Rusty and Sunshine, who reside in a temporary stable dwelling until they are big enough to fight their own way in the world. This was brought home to us in no uncertain terms when we found a little moorhen baby we'd been watching. It had recently appeared in one of our ponds. To our horror, the puppy had the head and the cat had the body....not a great sight, but a reminder that nature is tough and who dares wins. So, to give them the greatest chance of survival in our jungle, we've been advised to keep them in until they're at point of lay which is approximately 23 weeks, give or take a bit of advice each way.
Mummy Bantam hatched two eggs out of the six fertilized eggs we collected, and unfortunately abandoned her nest just as the rest were beginning the hatching process. We did our best to try to encourage her to keep the other eggs warm - we could hear them cheeping...but were firm in our resolve not to interfere with nature. Now almost five weeks old Rusty and Sunshine are growing rapidly and no longer fit under Mummy Bantam. Sunshine was a perfect fluffy yellow chick and is now developing white feathers. We still have no idea whether they'll be cocks or hens. Mummy Bantam is fiercely protective and has drawn blood on me a couple of time when I've been replenishing food or water. Hopefully she'll do her best to protect them on the farm when we let them join the others free roaming.
The barn joists were rotten through and on New Year's Eve morning it had collapsed. Luckily for us our besties were staying, one of whom is a carpenter, the other an engineer so between them they happily got stuck in and made a temporary strut until the builders could schedule a visit to fix up the rest of it. All the joists are now made good. The lean to on the north side of the barn has been demolished and removed to leave a more useful concrete hard standing. Most useful of all has been the new guttering that now spans the whole of the north facing side of the barn. The old guttering was non existent and with three large roof areas spilling into this area the ground was permanently wet and boggy. A 'farmers' sized gutter and downpipe has been fitted so the ground is no longer squelchy and the lucky ponies are warm and dry with new gauzing fitted over the huge draughty window holes.
Having been with the 'Ologist for nearly two decades (bar a couple of years) something new has started to happen much to my amusement. In all those years I can recall about two incidences when he has mowed the lawn. Ever. The job has always fallen to me to do, and now more than ever the pressure's on. He seems to have avoided that man-gene that requires lush green short mowed grass - or so I thought. The 'Ologist has bought himself a topper for his tractor and is in a frenzy to get on the ground to mow his meadows. Our newly seeded field has successfully turned green with mainly grass and a few weeds in between - which we're told with regular topping and grazing will easily be kept under control. We can't graze the other fields until they are fenced, and we can't fence until the hedges and trees are cut back....and we can't do that while the wildlife is nesting and young animals are about....so the small girl and I sing that song to her Daddy....One Man went to mow...went to mow a meadow....as he sets off with the topper attached and a big grin. It has made a huge difference to our fields that we're not taking hay off and is a great investment at a time when we can't use animals to do that job. We held our second Pop-up-Pub last week. It is a monthly event, run and organised by 5 ladies from the village - and was a rip roaring success on both occasions. Our village has no pub, shop, playground or other amenity whereby families or groups can gather to catch up and socialise. There is the church, but you have to be churchy to go there, and they don't open up on a Friday night - its a different type of socialising. So the idea was born by one of the individuals and the group formed, seemingly organically. It takes a lot of work to organise but its fun and has started to gain momentum. It is held in our village hall, don't groan, we do a superb job to turn it into a pub each month with subtle lighting and not an inch of cork notice board on display. We polished off two casks of ale from Exeter Brewery this month together with buckets of wine, Prosecco and cider...not to mention the 75 Thai meals we served. Next month is Fish & Chips, and we're already planning a quiz night and a New Year's Eve party. There's a Jazz Night tonight we've got tickets for and a summer of fun ahead....who knew when we moved here it could be this much fun? Its such a rural location in the middle of nowhere...with a great social calendar.
My garden has been taking up most of my time and certainly most of my energy (pictured are a variety of roses which are glorious, perfumed and plentiful). A new strimmer with multi changing heads has greatly improved things for me with my never ending battle against the march of the weeds. I have to keep reminding myself that this is the peak of the growing season with every single plant making the most of the rainwater and sunshine and turning it into growth. While I take great pleasure in watching the edibles enlarge in my growing room, I have to also accept that the thistles and nettles grow with the same voracity.
We had a wonderful 'Good Life' lunch yesterday. It was almost 100% home grown - a spinach quiche with salad greens and the first of the gherkins. Or it could have been a cornichon - I can't see or taste a difference to be honest - but was a growing first for me this year and will definitely be on my must grow every year list. Admittedly I didn't grow and grind the wheat for the pastry, but I did grow and pick everything else and we took great pleasure in eating it. We did thank the chickens for the eggs as well. This is why we chose to live here. To live a good life. And that's exactly what we're doing. To be truly self sufficient would be enormous hard work and not a lot of social time or fun. We get the best of both worlds - lovely countryside, some home grown fodder but safe with the knowledge that we're just a 'click' away from a superstore delivery van. How the farmer's wife who lived here 70 years ago coped without today's modern efficiencies is beyond thinking! I give thanks for my new chest freezer each time I visit its depths. 
Another first for me this month, talking of freezers. We were in receipt of a large bag of meat...the 'Ologist having ordered half a lamb from farmer friends we've made locally - they farm organic lamb and have a dairy herd that are also organic. Even with the help of a very concise book I still got some parts wrong. Needless to say it all tastes delicious and nice to know its very local.
The small girl is still enjoying the pony but she is quite little and our pony is big by comparison. We have found an even littler pony locally that could do with a little girl to love it as its current owners, two boys, have grown out of him and are into other things.
So come the summer holidays we'll be a 3 pony farm - as if I don't have enough pony poo to pick up!
Lovely read and so nice to see how You have just slotted in to farming life..... Keep writing.. love from a chilly Cape TOWN Cathy L
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